BLAH

SHARON'S EDGE

Greetings, sports entertainment fans! Break out the bubbly yet again,
[slash] wrestling is 3 years old!!! Whoo hoo!! I've taken a vacation
from writing about my favorite 'Homo-erotic soap for men' but I had to
put in an appearance for this anniversary! I'm going to take a look at
some of the things I wrote in my last anniversary column and see how
things have changed.

I'm still the same WWF mark I've been since my first column!
My tastes haven't changed much since that first column-I still love the
Rock, Edge & Christian and the Hardys; I still loathe XPac.

Over the last couple of years, I've developed into a good
wrestling mark and sadly we're not seeing much of that in the WWE these
days, though things have been looking up lately. As for that list of
men, I've pretty much gone off most of them: I still love Rock but I
really think Christian is underrated while Edge is overrated. And I've
always thought Matt was the better wrestler of the Hardys, not to
mention the most normal. :)

While high spots are cool, a good wrestler they do not make.
(Neither does loads of fluorescent paint.) I don't know what the deal
with the Hardys is anymore, they jobbed them out to the point of making
them stale. Yeah Jeff got a title shot with Taker but did anyone really
think he had a chance? Meanwhile Matt is feuding (I guess) with Raven,
a guy who used to be taken seriously until he's been jobbed out to the
point of who cares anymore.

I don't know whether it was the big influence of the 2 Christian fans
in my life but I totally lost my Edge. I think aside from that spear,
there's not much else to him; Christian is the better speaker and the
better wrestler and it's been really frustrating to see him reduced to
tantrum-throwing jobber. I certainly hope this Team Canada angle leads
to a better push for him, as well as Lance Storm, another good wrestler
with no push before now. Oh and by the way, I DO still loathe Xpac,
that'll never change.

Anyway-evidently we're at yet another rebirth for
the Light Heavyweight division, this time with X-Prat at the helm. Let
me get this straight-he's done basically NOTHING the past few years and
he's rewarded not only with the belt but with the booking sheet too?
Whoa! So will he end up holding this belt for at least as long as
Gillburg? And hmmm...against Billy Kidman at Invasion-could we see him
holding BOTH the LHW AND the Cruiserweight belts after the PPV?

Since then, the LHW belt has been scrapped in favor of the
Cruiserweight one,

and I guess that's a good thing. The one thing I enjoyed watching on
Nitro & Thunder was seeing the Cruiserweights. I'm even more excited to
see Rey Misterio will be making his debut very soon! Those clips of
him in action with the close-ups of his mask are done very well. I
could complain of him wearing a mask again, since he's such a cutey,
but this isn't about hormones, it's about in-ring action!

Sadly there's not much to say about the women's
division either. To mangle a popular quote 'I have not come to praise
the Women's Division but to bury it'. If you're ever read my other
columns, you know how I've disliked the women's roles in the WWF. As a
female fan, I've longed for someone to admire and the WWF has lacked
for a role model. When I first started watching the WWF, we had Sable
but she was known more for her....uh...assets than for
her wrestling skills. She had some interesting matches with Jacky and
Luna but they were more gimmicks than anything.

The WWE obviously still view the women as eye candy but
they've actually drawn a line, dividing the total eye candy and the
workers, which is good. I have to hand it to Trish; she really has
stepped up her game over the last year. She started off as eye candy
but has shown she isn't afraid to take a bump. Poor Molly, only in the
WWE could being a virgin with some morality, not to
mention actually having some meat on your bones, make
you a heel. And considering that most of those 'jokes' are coming from
an out of shape, balding, aging ex-wrestler whose wife cuckolded him
make it doubly hard to take. I've taken to muting my TV through most of
RAW's matches, he's just too annoying. I really miss Paul E. on
commentary.

I also like Jazz; she's one of the toughest women around though some
guys seem to dislike her because she doesn't fit the silicone blonde
WWE diva mode. I look forward to her return as well as Ivory's. Where
IS Ivory? TE is over now; it's time to get her back in the ring! And
btw, could we PLEASE stop TE's Jackie from talking anymore? She sounds
like a Valley Girl! And will we EVER see Nidia actually wrestle? Last
time I checked, she won a wrestling contract, not
acting one! Poor Taylor, she must still be kicking herself for getting
so drunk!

Did you see Chyna trying to sound political when talking of her
departure from the WWF? She left because she has no leverage! Vince has
a monopoly-but that's fine; it's just business! Excuse me, but this was
the guy you referred to in your book as doing more for you than your
father ever did. Linda McMahon announced coldly that they were NOT
renewing Chyna's contract-there's quite a story beneath the surface.

I'm afraid that I was one of those who bought the company line
about Chyna's wanting more money, when it was all about HHH cheating on
her with the boss' daughter then having her dropped just so neither of
them would have to feel guilty over what they did. I know she was
pushed pretty hard due to her relationship with HHH, especially over
good workers like Jericho but at least she was pushed as a strong
woman, not strictly T&A.

So-where is wrestling itself headed?

I have to say I'm still in a quandary over that, especially
with the walkout of Stone Cold and the additions of the guys who drove
the WCW into the ground, namely Hogan, Nash and Russo. I wasn't
watching wrestling during the whole Hulkamania thing so I'm not one of
the nostalgic marks loving the red and yellow. Some people were saying
Stone Cold & Raven were getting old, so what does that make Hogan?
Anyway, I was disgusted the way Vince handled the whole thing really
painting Steve as the bad guy, I wish that Confidential had also
featured Steve telling his side of the story.

Stone Cold was essential in the rebuilding of the WWE and while Vince
did back-pedal a bit on RAW, acknowledging and thanking Steve; having
the top guys-UT, Rock & HHH putting him down in promos and interviews
won't help the situation at all. I just hope he gets the necessary help
he needs then returns, his absence is felt.

I've been finding myself getting exasperated with it sometimes
but not so much that I can't watch it. I've been taping it for the past
3 years and it's not quite the fun it used to be but it still has its
moments. So you know where I am on Sundays, Mondays and Thursdays!

I still do watch all the shows but I find I'm taping a lot
less. I really like Benoit, Eddy Guerrero, and Booker T, not to mention
Lance, Christian, Jericho and Kurt Angle so I'm not going anywhere
anytime soon. I argue with Rebecca over Brock Lesnar (she really
doesn't get it, while I see potential) but she & I dissect it every
Tuesday and Friday morning.

I do still get rather exasperated with some of the angles as well as
some of the booking but it still holds my interest. There's still a
good undercard there and I can appreciate any good matches. Also I'm
lucky enough to get CZW in my area too so I never miss that either! It
has the heart of ECW, which I truly miss. I also thought I'd never say
this but I miss WCW too. I, being the WWF mark that I was, pretty much
dogged it at every turn but I guess it's like that Joni once said,
don't it always seem to go that you don't know what you got 'til it's
gone'.

In closing, I'd like to say Happy Anniversary to our esteemed
webmaster and also say thank you! You've given me a place to express
myself creatively and I've befriended some very cool people along the
way-hey to the Oracles, all of whom wrote for this site at one time or
another. I've even been lucky enough to lose my heart to someone I'd
met on this very site so [slash] wrestling will always be a special
place to me! Again, a very happy 2nd anniversary and many more!!

The Marvellous One and I are still going strong after 2 years
so the only thing I'd like to amend in that paragraph is happy 3rd
anniversary, CRZ!